A bit of history:
In 2018, 4 friends started a non-profit organization, Ekisande, to support a school in Uganda. While the non-profit organization is new, we have been involved in the project since 2014.
It all started when Dirk, one of the Ekisande founders, was in Uganda to build a university radio station at Mountains of the Moon University, partly funded by Thomas More University of Applied Sciences. He met Bishop Thomas Kiiza PhD, one of the local coordinators of the inter-university project with several Belgian universities.
Father Tom, as the bishop is often called, also helps the people of Bwera, a small village in Uganda. It started with schooling for orphans and deprived children in his church, later Father Tom added a football club, a health care centre and a vocational training centre for young people. .
We decided to gather funding and other support to help Father Tom grow his program.
What we’ve done so far
Since 2014 we gathered over €40,000 in funding and used that to buy land and improve the infrastructure:
- two-classroom building for a primary school
- toilets for boys and girls
- a new campus called Virgo Maria for the kindergarten and primary schools.
- three-classroom building at Virgo Maria
- a 3-classroom building and a 4-classroom building are constructed, one of which is sponsored by Canadians.
- healthcare centre, called Mama Sabina
- Water supply for both locations
- Expansion of the plot around Mama Sabina
Three buildings are being built on the Virgo Maria Campus, for a total of 10 class rooms (August 2019). We also provide food for 400 students and teachers.
These beautiful videos were made by Katya Suykens of Medialab of AP University of Applied Sciences and Arts:
Most of the work & material is sourced locally to improve ownership and increase the positive effect Ekisande has on the Bwera community.
You can find our sites on Google Maps:
• Virgo Maria: 0.019957, 29.729825
• Mama Sabina: 0.014917, 29.730444
